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Thursday, August 30, 2012

rev 3 maine: volunteer report

so apparently ive become a terrible blogger in the last month. i used to have so much to talk about (and anyone that knows me will tell you that i rarely shut up...) so its odd that i havent blogged. but really, not a lot has happened. i get up, run, go to work, come home, eat dinner, drink beer, watch big brother, go to bed, repeat. i can only talk about those things so much. speaking of big brother though, WHOA BEST EPISODE EVER last night. cant wait to see tonights episode. i hope you all are just as obsessed as i am, or else we might not be able to be friends. yay dan. ill be sad to see brit go. still dont like frank.

ok so anyway... a couple of cool things have happened in the last week, one of which happened this morning at about 6am. when my garmin showed 4.39 miles on this mornings run with the husband (he made me pinky promise i would drag him out of bed to run) my 2012 mileage total became 1,000 miles. ive never made this milestone in a calendar year and i am pretty happy with it. my legs feel strong and im excited for my upcoming races!

and the other cool thing... last sunday i volunteered at the finish line of the Revolution 3 Maine half ironman/olympic triathlon! (also included was the sheJAMs all womens olympic triathlon to kick cancer!) i have volunteered at a few races before and a sprint tri, but this was unlike anything i have ever done. what a great experience! great day, great scenery, awesome atmosphere... everything about this day was incredible, and it solidified my desire to someday complete a 70.3 myself. and from all the talk from the finishers, i think the majority of people felt this was a great race. it was the first time rev3 had been to maine (old orchard beach) and i am confident they will be back next year (which is good cuz i kinda want to do it, and ill get $50 off since i was a volunteer this year. a perk i didnt know about til i got there!)

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i was going to head down for the swim start (i didnt need to check in for my volunteer start until noon) but instead i slept in and made french toast with ty. i got down to oob around 9 and everyone was already out on the bike or run. the pics from the rev3 site show a beautiful sunrise over the atlantic ocean and i heard the water was almost 70 degrees. i went to the volunteer tent and got my shirt and made the mistake of putting it on right away. within minutes i was flagged down and asked to go man an intersection where they needed a volunteer. there were a few cops there but they were trying to direct angry drivers who didnt understand what was going on/why they couldnt go left and pedestrians trying to cross the streets. although august is a really busy time in oob, i am hoping next year they will just close those streets for the 8 hours to make things a little more smooth. it was mass chaos at times and i witnessed a few runners almost get hit by cars in part to drivers who didnt care and cops who were not able to really do all the work themselves. luckily i think there were no casualties, but it wasnt pretty.

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i felt very official

back of the tshirts for sale. very cool/very maine/(very expensive)(and they are RED andy... cough cough)

around 11am, i went over to the finish line, and i was able to see jordan come in for his strong finish and talked to him for a few seconds. i then checked in to start handing out medals to the finishers. it was chaotic at first since there were three different medals (half/olympic got one medal, shejams got another, and any kids that crossed the finish with their mom/dad got a medal). i was even able to medal a black lab :) a few times i got pretty emotional... the sheer happiness on the faces of those crossing the finish line, whether it be their first half ironman/olympic triathlon/race or their 100th, everyone was smiling. and we were having quite the party when they all crossed. the only thing that really sucked was right as they crossed they needed to stop and allow a volunteer to take the timing chip off their ankle. many people wanted to keep moving. then they would get to me to get their medal and i had to hold a few people up. i got a lot of sweaty hugs though :) (i also saw a lot of bloody noses.... open water swims still scare me)

great medals... which double as bottle openers

four of those great sweaty hugs came from jake, eric, jen, and elizabeth. these guys are all so freaking awesome and looked fantastic crossing that finish line. jake, eric, and jen all had their kids as they crossed, and elizabeth and i hugged and talked for a long time before she left the finishers area. im in awe of all their hard work and dedication for sure. i love having hardcore friends :)

when we got word that the last person out on the course was about a mile away, the finish line annoucner (who i think had a few too many red bulls throughout the day...) started to call in all rev3 staff and all of the crowd to get into the finish line for a grand finale finish. he kept talking about how awesome the cedar point finish was, but that we were rivaling it (and eventually surpassed it). we were all going nuts... people were doing back flips, jumping up and down, and the last lady wasnt even there yet!

when she rounded the corner the whole finish line erupted. it was sooooo cool. she had a police escort and crossed the finish with a huge smile on her face. i had to stay behind the finish line since she couldnt get her medal til she crossed it (i took my job very seriously hehe) and she was very happy to get it, saying "this is what i came all this way for!" :)

overall i had an awesome day and a really great experience. rev 3 is a really well run company and they didnt leave any detail out. im really hoping to be back here next year!﻿

4 comments:

In CT the Manchester Thanksgiving day race has this guy who runs in a loin cloth, literally a loin cloth and shoes with no socks, with "naked squirrel" written on his back, and it's often FRIGID. Costumes in races rock!

I'm with you; love Big Brother, sad about Brit :( but that Dan is amazing! also not a Frank fan.I have some friends that did this tri, an amazing event for sure. You are great for volunteering. I'm always so grateful for volunteers at the events I do.You can totally do it!!